At her career bread and butter level in the realm of $100K - International, Hev has managed to resolidify her form and competiveness:
Last 6 months of results at that level:
Jan '20 - International, Hobart (Q) QF*
Oct '19 - International, Tianjin - F
Sep '19 - $125K New Haven, - SF
Aug '19 - $100K Vancouver, - WIN
That's very respectable, and the sort of progress she made in her best form. Though, it is arguable whether she actually played better tennis previously, or not.
It's when she strays into Premier or above that she still has trouble, only ever managing a high of one win in any tournament in that bracket, and that almost always in qualifying (becasue her WR is too low to get in as of right)
But the return to consistency over time at her normal level of competition is very encouraging & hopeful
The only thing is, in every one of those 4 matches, she has been the pre match betting favourite, so while all were higher ranked players, they weren't necessarily upsets or against superior players. That said, she may well have lost some of them last year, and it's been a very encouraging last 10 or so matches, stretching back to Tianjin last season.
They've gone for the local WC vs the rising star, and Muguruza-Kudermetova as the two evening matches, so Heather is second on around 4am UK. She finished her match pretty quickly, so wasn't on court much later than Mertens, so turnaround shouldn't really affect things.
At her career bread and butter level in the realm of $100K - International, Hev has managed to resolidify her form and competiveness: Last 6 months of results at that level:
Jan '20 - International, Hobart (Q) QF* Oct '19 - International, Tianjin - F Sep '19 - $125K New Haven, - SF Aug '19 - $100K Vancouver, - WIN
That's very respectable, and the sort of progress she made in her best form. Though, it is arguable whether she actually played better tennis previously, or not. It's when she strays into Premier or above that she still has trouble, only ever managing a high of one win in any tournament in that bracket, and that almost always in qualifying (becasue her WR is too low to get in as of right)
But the return to consistency over time at her normal level of competition is very encouraging & hopeful
I pretty much agree with this, and it's good to see Heather getting back closer to where her ranking should be. She's certainly good enough to be top 100, probably around 70 to 90, which is why it was so disappointing to see her drop so low last year.